Posted on 07/17/2004 9:17:31 PM PDT by quidnunc
"There is a religious war going on in this country, a cultural war as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America."
With those ringing words Pat Buchanan fired up his supporters at the 1992 Republican National Convention. To be sure, not all delegates cheered Mr. Buchanan's call to arms, which was at odds with the "kinder, gentler" image that George H.W. Bush had attempted to project. Election analysts later listed Mr. Buchanan's fiery words among the factors contributing to the defeat of President Bush, albeit one of lesser importance than the slow economy and the repudiation of his "Read my lips, no new taxes" pledge.
In the years since Mr. Buchanan's declaration of cultural war, the idea of a clash of cultures has become a common theme in discussions of American politics. The culture-war metaphor refers to a displacement of the classic economic conflicts that animated 20th-century politics in the advanced democracies by newly emergent moral and cultural ones. The literature generally attributes Mr. Buchanan's inspiration to a 1991 book, "Culture Wars," by sociologist James Davison Hunter, who divided Americans into the culturally "orthodox" and the culturally "progressive" and argued that increasing conflict was inevitable.
No one has embraced the concept of the culture war more enthusiastically than journalists, ever alert for subjects that have "news value." Conflict is high in news value. Disagreement, division, polarization, battles and war make good copy. Agreement, consensus, moderation, compromise and peace do not. Thus, the notion of a culture war fits well with the news sense of journalists who cover politics. Their reports tell us that contemporary voters are sharply divided on moral issues. As David Broder wrote in the Washington Post in November 2000, "The divide went deeper than politics. It reached into the nation's psyche… . It was the moral dimension that kept Bush in the race."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
I think the author is far too optimistic.
There is a culture war going on. It was then, and it still is now.
Anybody who thinks "normal Americans" aren't polarized isn't paying attention. Americans are more divided that I've seen in my nearly 60 years. Based on my understanding of American history, I'd have to say more polarized than at any time since 1860.
More and more the WSJ has become a rag.
Arnold didn't run away with anything. He barely squeaked-by in a field of 200 candidates.
actually I see it as a division between the media is out of touch with americans.
That is the divide. There is a reason that networks have lost men for example.
There is a reason newspapers have had to fake their readership.
There is a reson that alphabet pollsters have to pad support for homosexuals.
The media has lost contact with america.
Democrat politicians are America's insurgents, stirring up athiests, condom throwers, Hollywood drunks, abortion enthusiasts, welfare parasites, government-addicted minority "victims", screeching feminists, college professors, greedy malcontents, and all the other losers, weirdos, and goofballs who make up the Democrat base.
Unfortunately, that's a lot of scum.
But it's not nearly enough to win without the help of those mind-bogglingly stupid people who work for a living, pay taxes, raise families, appear normal, and who have absolutely nothing in common with the Democrat base, yet vote along with them anyway.
There's a culture war alright, and we normal folks better fight it to the bitter end, relentlessly and mercilessly, for the sake of our nation and for the sake of our children's children.
we are political elites???????????????????????????
Illustrious Albert Pike 33°
Letter 15 August 1871
Addressed to Grand Master Guiseppie Mazzini 33°
I think you've got it. The press fools don't know what's hapening out here in flyover country and they can't explain what is realy going on. They are dishonest, selfserving and can't figure out why no one listens to them any more.
What a load!
I'll tell you how polarized I am and I'm an American. I no longer see liberals as political oponents. I see them as creatures of the darkness who are trying to get me and my family killed. They want to destroy my nation and my culture because they have bought into some crazy idea of a world utiopia.
I don't want more politics as usual. I think what we need is a civil war and we need to clean this country out and start over. Yes I know that's a horrible concept. Well I believe it's either a few hundred thousand die now or most of us die in a few more years.
We are such a devided and debauched land that we can not even agree on a course of action to repel the immediate and obvious threat of WMD armed Islamist murderers. Either we have an internal revolution soon or we shall be swept asside by a militarilly superior force. Yes superior. We may have the weapons but they have the will.
Then you've forgotten what it was like in the 1960s and early '70s.
You're 100% correct. They are no longer just the opposition, they are truly our national enemy, and as such deserve to be treated as same.
Bullshite from a rag that ought to know better.
Overall, it's as bad as it's ever been in my 46 years on this front and they (the social libs of either party) are trouncing
my side.
Yep....and everyone I know agrees....even a few modrut lefties.
Don't worry. I am a proud part of our "Fifth Column" here in the Blue Zone.
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